Play it Again, Sam #32a - "Paint it Black"

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A cold, gray morning with lots of rain in the forecast here in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately I have no "gray" songs to use in this morning's Play it Again, Sam, a two part discussion consisting of an original song followed by a cover of that song, so this will have to suffice. We are at #32a, the "original:" "Paint it Black" by The Rolling Stones. You learn something new everyday, and this is something that had never occurred to me. "Paint it Black" was the first Stones song to utilize a sitar. As the story goes, guitarist Brian Jones had grown tired of being upstaged by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the songwriting department, and basically gave up on penning tunes. He had, however, learned the sitar while studying Eastern instruments as a way to fill the time in which he was no longer spending writing songs, and quickly developed the sitar medley used in the song (after, according to Wikipedia, a conversation with George Harrison, who had recently used a sitar on The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood.") "Paint it Black" was a huge hit by any standards: #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and in the UK, and Top 5 in eight other countries. In fact, it was the first #1 hit to feature a sitar! It's also been covered a boatload of times. Stay tuned! (Info verified by Wikipedia)